Ship of Fools: Favorite word of the day

Thread: Favorite word of the day Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by Evensong (# 14696) on :

Sometimes I hear a word and am much struck by it. It's often a word I know but have not used or thought about it much in the past. It stays with me all day and I roll it around in my head and heart.

On Friday it was Repose.

I like that one because I yearn for it these days - far too busy.

Yesterday it was Blindsided as I was frustrated at not being allowed to do something I wanted to do.

Have you got a favorite old/new word today? Why has it struck you?

[ 21. October 2013, 13:17: Message edited by: Evensong ]

Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :

The death last month of the wonderful Prof. Charles McKean prompted me to read his beautifully illustrated book "The Scottish Chateau; The Country House of Renaissance Scotland".

Today's word is a newly learnt one from there - "squinch" which is, according to the glossary "an arched support across a re-entrant carrying a structure above, such as a turnpike staircase."

Squinch .

It makes me happy just to say it.

SQUINCH.

Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :

Quaich
A two-handled, shallow, drinking cup - often silver or horn and silver - from Scotland.

Posted by Graven Image (# 8755) on :

I have a favorite word that I like not because of what it means or how it sounds, but I have liked it since a small child by how it appear when written.

balloon

Something about the double l's and the following o's I find interesting to look at. Of course sometimes I play at putting the o's on top and adding some color so they indeed look like balloons on a string. [Biased]

Posted by Chorister (# 473) on :

Quoditch, it's a place name in Creamtealand. I love it because it makes me think of some sort of magical HarryPotteresque land, where I think I might rather like to live.

Posted by Hedgehog (# 14125) on :

Today, palanquin...because I needed it to finish a crossword puzzle. An Asian covered litter designed to be carried by two or four men (depending, I assume, on how many slaves you happen to have).

Posted by Niminypiminy (# 15489) on :

A word without a q in it:

eirenic -- aiming or aimed at peace.

I like the look of it with its repeated dipthongs (and there's another good word), and I like its meaning, which I have just today discovered.

Posted by Pulsator Organorum Ineptus (# 2515) on :

crepuscular

Posted by jedijudy (# 333) on :

Pulsator Organorum Ineptus, why do you like the word "crepuscular"?

I can tell you why I like it, but it's your word right now. [Smile]

Posted by Kyzyl (# 374) on :

Wainscoting. Just sounds cool. And, as a Monty Python sketch said, it sounds like an idyllic English village.

Posted by Kyzyl (# 374) on :

A bit of a tangent, but there is a company name
I love, Eli Lily. Try it... Eli Lily...Eli Lily...Eli Lily.

Posted by Hebdom (# 14685) on :

Antigone.

I love the sound of the word and all the stories associated with the name.I love the history it conjures up; all those Greek tragedies and life and death dramas.

I am about to see a new health professional called Antigone [X]. It will be all I can do to call her Dr [X] rather than Antigone.

I still shudder at the memory of the assistant who gave me the contact details referring to her as Anti-gone. [Roll Eyes]

Posted by Nicolemr (# 28) on :

A phrase rather than a single word, glacial moraine. I don't know why, I just love the sound of it. That and (this is really strange), Tierra del Fuego.

Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on :

My personal Word-of-the-Year is Callipygous which, when I used it in another place, was correctly translated by another Shipmate as Having a hot [or cute] butt.

Posted by Galilit (# 16470) on :

Since childhood I have loved the word
"economics"
Just the way it looks - all its letters are rounded, well apart from the "i". Shame about the practices of course!

Posted by no prophet (# 15560) on :

Meretricious - means a believable argument or point and seems to have some credibility but really full of it. It sounds both learned and that the person saying the meretricious thing a creep.

I also like gieffel which it the bump in your jacket or shirt after it has hung on a hook. I fear this may be an invented word.

[edited to fix code]

[ 22. October 2013, 07:16: Message edited by: Firenze ]

Posted by Galilit (# 16470) on :

Sounds like Yiddish to me
"keffel" is crease
(among other things so don't jump on me)

Posted by Jonah the Whale (# 1244) on :

I'm going to be greedy and have three goes.

For the way it looks: minimum. If you have somewhat spiky handwriting all you need is a horizontal zigzag line and a couple of dots above where you imagine the "i"s should be.

For its sound: bleb. Something about it reminds me of the way Rowan Atkinson can make a monosyllabic word - Bob - sound utterly preposterous.

For its meaning: steatopygia. The condition of having bountifully fat buttocks. And I thought of this before reading WW's entry above. There must be something in the ether.

[ 22. October 2013, 08:25: Message edited by: Jonah the Whale ]

Posted by Kaplan Corday (# 16119) on :

quote:
Originally posted by no prophet:
Meretricious - means a believable argument or point and seems to have some credibility but really full of it. It sounds both learned and that the person saying the meretricious thing a creep.

Someone once used the word meretricious in an argument with the late Gore Vidal, who replied, "Meretricious to you, too, and a Happy New Year".

Posted by PeteC (# 10422) on :

A word I learnt in my young adulthood, and which has come in handy in many word games is usufructuary. It means a person or corporate entity having the use and enjoyment of something.

Another word I learnt in my younger days is crappie. A crappie is a fish. This also gets plates of sandwiches thrown at me in word games and screams of disbelief.

Posted by TheAlethiophile (# 16870) on :

One of my favourites is infundibular, meaning funnel-shaped.

As an A-level student, my friends & I challenged each other to get random words into our exams. I was challenged with this one on my physics papers. Thankfully, one of the the questions related to the circuitry of a loudspeaker, which provided ample opportunity to meet the challenge. Another of my favourites there.

Posted by Sighthound (# 15185) on :

Eirenic.

Until a couple of months ago I had never come across this word, and if asked would have said it meant something to do with Ireland.

Now the word seems to be popping up almost as much as 'and'. How eirenic.

Posted by Nenya (# 16427) on :

Cascade. A life-long favourite. [Smile]

Love the way the word sounds, and looks, and the mental images it conjures up - a series of little waterfalls, or flowers in a hanging garden. I also love the way it's rare enough not to hear every day so there's a frisson of excitement when it occurs. I always have a bit of a moment when the manager at work cascades something to the team. [Yipee]

Nen - loves words. [Axe murder]

Posted by Carex (# 9643) on :

Some of us live in the shadow of the Cascades.

I rather enjoy "cascode", which is a form of two electronic circuits cascaded.

But my word for this week is "conspicuity", after the instructions(!) for a safety vest described it as a "conspicuity aid".

Posted by Bene Gesserit (# 14718) on :

"Jump" or most other words ending in "ump." There's just something about the sound.

Posted by anoesis (# 14189) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Nenya:
Cascade. A life-long favourite.

Love the way the word sounds, and looks, and the mental images it conjures up - a series of little waterfalls, or flowers in a hanging garden. I also love the way it's rare enough not to hear every day so there's a frisson of excitement when it occurs. I always have a bit of a moment when the manager at work cascades something to the team.

Nen - loves words.

I would have a moment in the corner with a bucket if a manager tried to cascade something to me. What the hell is wrong with 'delegate' (or even 'shrug off' or 'disclaim responsbility'? Cascading things to your employees has corporate bulls**t written all over it to me...

Posted by anoesis (# 14189) on :

...aaand on a more heavenly note, there have been a couple already mentioned which I really love, crepuscular in particular.

It may also come as no surprise that anoesis is a favoured word.

I remember when I was doing my first degree (in psychology) being absolutely charmed by the dorso-lateral reticular geniculate nucleus. It's a structure within the brain, and I can't remember a thing about it except its marvellous name, which is like a tongue-twister all in itself.

Posted by Hedgehog (# 14125) on :

Oh, looky! It is a new day so I can post a new word! [Yipee]

On behalf of all of us who adored the Calvin & Hobbes comic strip, I humbly submit smock.

(Actually, we just like to say "smock." Smock, smock, smock, smock...)

Posted by Zacchaeus (# 14454) on :

Indefatigable

Since a child I've just loved the way it fills the mouth.

Posted by piglet (# 11803) on :

I get that effect with pericombobulation, especially if you imagine it being said by Rowan Atkinson.

[Big Grin]

Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on :

Igneous has a nice sound to it.

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

I was recently reminded of the Yiddish term, "Ishkabibble!" I have tossed it out, now and then, thinking it meant something like "poppycock!" but it turns out it means "Take it easy!" or "No worries!"

Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :

fructify

...as used to appear in verse 4 of Come, thou holy Paraclete: the whole verse sounded like a concentrated lesson in double-entendres:

quote:
What is soiled, make thou pure,
What is wounded, work its cure,
What is parched fructify;
What is rigid, gently bend,
What is frozen, warmly tend,
Straighten what goes erringly.

Generations of trebles were unable to sing it without corpsing, often made worse by ignorant/genteel adults singing the word "frooctify", alarmed at the possible rhyme with f**k.

And of course, from fructify you get fructification!

Posted by Huia (# 3473) on :

I have always liked away . It's one of the first words I remember printing.

I remember clutching a Black Beauty pencil in my hand and marvelling at the w between the two a s. Spelling it was like a poem.

Yes, I am weird, and simple

Posted by St. Gwladys (# 14504) on :

Another fan of crepuscular. I came across it first when we had a (semi)tame ferret. [Roll Eyes]

Posted by no prophet (# 15560) on :

Crepuscular makes me think of crapulous which is an entirely different word. And that one makes me think of glairigenous due the association of what glairigenous means and the false friend word that is engendered by the first syllable "crap-"

Posted by Kaplan Corday (# 16119) on :

Ethereal.

Especially corn flakes.

Posted by Rev per Minute (# 69) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Niminypiminy:
A word without a q in it:

eirenic -- aiming or aimed at peace.

I like the look of it with its repeated dipthongs (and there's another good word), and I like its meaning, which I have just today discovered.

My late grandmother was Irene, and she was not particularly eirenic...

One of my favourites is serendipity , which leads to the equally lovely serendipitous : it (roughly) means the action of finding something by chance. As if that wasn't enough, it was also once the name for Sri Lanka. I think it's the almost 'opposing' consonants (d/p/t) and the five syllables in 11 letters that attract me, as well as the felicitous meaning.

Posted by Moo (# 107) on :

I like 'pusillanimity', which means cowardice. Somehow the sound suggests the meaning.

Moo

Posted by Chorister (# 473) on :

Outwith - a word I came across for the first time when my son went to St. Andrew's University (ditto Huzzah). And, several years later, I still roll the word around on my tongue with great pleasure. And squeal with delight whenever I come across it, sad person that I am. We live a sheltered life down in Creamtealand.

Posted by Hedgehog (# 14125) on :

It's another new day! For today, I submit defenestrate. Made memorable to me from its use in one of Walt Kelly's Pogo comics, to wit:

"Defenestrate him!"
"Defenestration is too good for him! Throw him out the window!"

(from The Jack Acid Society Black Book if memory serves)

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Rev per Minute:

One of my favourites is serendipity , which leads to the equally lovely serendipitous : it (roughly) means the action of finding something by chance.

Oooh, that was my very favorite word for years.

Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :

Flange

Rolls off the tongue.

Sounds edible - which is weird bearing in mind what one is.

And there are different types - there's even a Puddle Flange!

Posted by Zacchaeus (# 14454) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Hedgehog:
It's another new day! For today, I submit defenestrate. Made memorable to me from its use in one of Walt Kelly's Pogo comics, to wit:

"Defenestrate him!"
"Defenestration is too good for him! Throw him out the window!"

(from The Jack Acid Society Black Book if memory serves)

For some reason that word has exactly the opposite effect on me. It feels bad and makes me shudder..
[Confused]

Posted by Jonah the Whale (# 1244) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Hedgehog:
It's another new day! For today, I submit defenestrate.

Where's Eutychus and his avatar when you need them? avatar

[ 24. October 2013, 07:47: Message edited by: Jonah the Whale ]

Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on :

Judicious

from the old Fairy Liquid™ adverts:

#Hands that judicious...#

Sorry about that should I leave now?

It's still a nice word.

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

If I had to pick one it would probably be "evanescent".

Interesting that most of us are picking euphonious words not in common use -"endangered" words that deserve another airing.

Which reminds me, I do like "dirigible", although it's a while since I've seen one.

Posted by Meerkat (# 16117) on :

One of my favourites is 'flippercanorious'. What does it mean? Google it [Smile]

Posted by TheAlethiophile (# 16870) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Meerkat:
One of my favourites is 'flippercanorious'. What does it mean? Google it

Misread that as 'flippercarnivorous' - thought it might have meant a vicious dolphin. [Yipee]

Posted by Kyzyl (# 374) on :

Concatenation - to link together in a series or chain. Has nothing to do with prison cat societies.

Posted by Qoheleth. (# 9265) on :

Lambent

Posted by quetzalcoatl (# 16740) on :

Chthonic.

I like the look of this word, and I like the sound of it, and I try to use it fairly regularly.

Posted by Honest Ron Bacardi (# 38) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Qoheleth.:
Lambent

A hymn for you, Qoheleth!

Wayzgoose is pretty good, though finding a chance to use it is tricky. I have seen it used on the ship, though (not by me). Jejune and nugatory are handy words to keep up your sleeve when dissing other people's arguments.

OK, that's three words. Put them down for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday favourites.

Posted by R.A.M. (# 7390) on :

quote:
Originally posted by quetzalcoatl:
Chthonic.

I like the look of this word, and I like the sound of it, and I try to use it fairly regularly.

Autochthonous, is a favourite, and if anything easier to use.

Posted by Sir Kevin (# 3492) on :

Self-effacing is a word I used on the job last week and one of a handful of university-educated colleagues remarked that she had heard it rather a lot lately!

Posted by Chorister (# 473) on :

Today the words are brought to you by the letter 'D'. or 'diap' to be precise. No, not diaper (which is such a weird word to an Englishman) but 'diapason' and 'diaphanous'. Redolent of pipe organs and floaty things.

Posted by Qoheleth. (# 9265) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Honest Ron Bacardi:
A hymn for you, Qoheleth!

Indeed. That's we choristers like it.

Dight.

Posted by Mamacita (# 3659) on :

Seraphicwise. Used in context: "Sing praises seraphicwise." It's a lyric in a piece my choir is singing. I assume it means "in the manner of a great angel, " but I kind of think it's not a real word.

Posted by piglet (# 11803) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Mamacita:
... a piece my choir is singing ...

God is gone up by Finzi?

Love it! [Smile]

[ 26. October 2013, 03:35: Message edited by: piglet ]

Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :

Plangent
Best summed up by the rhythmic sound from a foghorn out at sea.

Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on :

Tantamount just sounds lovely, all those Ta sounds.

Posted by Zacchaeus (# 14454) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Welease Woderwick:
Tantamount just sounds lovely, all those Ta sounds.

Similarly I love potentate - even better in the hymn line 'potentate of time'

Posted by NJA (# 13022) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Niminypiminy:
eirenic -- aiming or aimed at peace.

Does it relate to Eire, i.e. Irish who's etymology is given as:

ultimately from Old Irish Eriu (accusative Eirinn, Erinn) "Erin," which is from Old Celtic *Iveriu (accusative *Iverionem, ablative *Iverione), perhaps from PIE *pi-wer- "fertile," literally "fat," from root *peie- "to be fat, swell"?

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

No, it comes from the Greek. The girls' name "Irene" stems directly from this too.

Posted by Sir Kevin (# 3492) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Welease Woderwick:
Tantamount just sounds lovely, all those Ta sounds.

I learned that word at age fifteen in school: our wonderful French-Canadian English and French teacher, Mr. Gordon LeClaire taught us a new vocabulary word every day! He was my favourite teacher.

Posted by Cara (# 16966) on :

caravel

(and not just because it contains my Ship name!)

Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on :

Expunge

Another set of lovely sounds.

Posted by Zacchaeus (# 14454) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Welease Woderwick:
Expunge

Another set of lovely sounds.

And the do sound so final as well..

Posted by Zacchaeus (# 14454) on :

i have just caught an episode of 'keeping up appearances' (old uk sitcom)
it was built around the word riparian - which hyacyinth bucket rolled of hee tongue..

Posted by Cara (# 16966) on :

Ah yes! dear Hyacinth and her riparian entertainments!

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

I just used the word "egad." Just kind popped out when I saw a gruesome pic. Then I thought-- cool word.

Posted by Evensong (# 14696) on :

Jinx. I used Egad today too.

Alacrity is a beauty.

Not sure why (besides enthusiasm being a nice feeling). Perhaps the elegant arrangements of the a's and the l and the c? Just looks nicely symmetrical. Or something..... [Big Grin]

Posted by chive (# 208) on :

A long time favourite of mine has been recidivism just for the way it rolls around your mouth when you say it.

I also like the Scots word keek meaning to look which Scottish children say instead of peekaboo. Despite living in deepest darkest Englandshire I've taught my friend's wee one to say keek and his whole face lights up and he giggles when he says it.

Posted by BessHiggs (# 15176) on :

tomfoolery, because today, my local grocery store is running a special on toilet paper and Purex, the day before Halloween. [Devil]

Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on :

Prestidigitation - yet another nice set of sounds.

Posted by Galilit (# 16470) on :

"commination"
chapter 25 of the Book of Common Prayer, 1662

Posted by Stercus Tauri (# 16668) on :

Contumacious. Stubborn disobedience. A fine word, but I've only ever encountered it in the Presbyterian Book of Forms (Canada). It hardly ever gets as far as enlivening presbytery meetings.

Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :

I like the "k" sounds in oak-apple and cuckoo-clock.

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